Reducing Risk as a Tool for Urban Improvement: the Caqueta Ravine, Lima, Peru

This paper presents a description of the Caqueta district in Lima and describes the methodology and research meth- ods used. It presents the key findings of the project and con- cludes with a brief discussion of mitigation as a tool for urban development. The paper seeks to reinforce the key point of the project: that adherence to “top down” interventions can ignore community level initiatives and the positive inputs of other actors; also that risk reduction can be used as a tool in uniting key actors to focus on protecting livelihoods, as well as lives, in the promotion of sustainable urban development. This paper results from a recently completed project entitled “Reducing Risk In Vulnerable Communities, Lima, Peru. Phase One: Caqueta Pilot Project”. The principle aim of the project was to identify and subsequently develop, with the participation of key “stakeholders”, sustainable risk reduction measures for Caqueta, a particularly low-income area of Lima, Peru, vulner- able to landslides, earthquakes and fire.